Jeong Yong-jin on the Ground: "The Answer Lies Where Customers and Products Are"

Continuing Emart24 Event, Visiting Starbucks Flagship Store
"Convenience Stores Are Promising, Product Development Battle"
"Starbucks Straw Replacement, An Example of Finding Solutions On-Site"

Jung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group, is attending the Delicious Festival held at aT Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 8th, touring the exhibition hall.
[Photo by Shinsegae Group].

"Convenience stores are a promising business... It’s a battle over who can develop products that better suit Korean tastes and lifestyle patterns."

"I came today and noticed the straws have changed. This is an answer found from customer inconvenience. The answer is always at the site where customers and products are."

Jung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group, spent a full day on-site management on the 8th, once again urging a return to basics by focusing on customers and products.

"Delicious, great value" Jung Yong-jin empowers Emart24

In the morning, Jung visited the Emart24 product exhibition 'Delicious Festival' held at the aT Center in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, carefully inspecting the venue for about an hour and listening to voices from the field. The Delicious Festival is an event where Emart24 introduces this year’s company business strategy, product trends, and store operation experiences to franchisees. Emart24 held this event for the first time since its founding in 2013. At the venue, not only Vice Chairman Jung but also Kwon Hyuk-gu, Head of Strategy at Shinsegae Group (President), Son Young-sik, CEO of Shinsegae Department Store, and Kang Hee-seok, CEO of Emart, among others, visited to support the event.

Known as a wine enthusiast, Vice Chairman Jung tasted the 'Como' wine, which Emart24 first introduced last year and sold over 240,000 bottles, and praised it as "delicious and great value." At the 'Ifresso' coffee corner, after drinking Blue Mountain coffee, he joked, "Isn’t it wrong to say it tastes better than Starbucks coffee?"

"Distribution industry profitability deteriorating... Convenience stores are the most promising business"

Vice Chairman Jung said it would be difficult to improve Emart’s performance and added, "Profitability in all distribution sectors is worsening day by day." Despite this, the convenience store business has established itself as a core business within the distribution industry. In 2021, domestic convenience store sales surpassed large supermarkets for the first time. Last year, the convenience store sales share in the domestic distribution market was 16.2%, higher than large supermarkets at 14.5%. Emart24 also exceeded 2 trillion won (2.1181 trillion won) in sales last year. Operating profit reached 6.8 billion won, achieving profitability for the first time in nine years.

Vice Chairman Jung said, "Convenience stores are the most promising business in domestic distribution, and it is important to continuously develop products and partners." He added, "In the past, domestic convenience stores followed the Japanese model, but now the key to success is who develops products that better suit Korean tastes and lifestyle patterns." When asked about plans to expand the convenience store business, he answered with his usual conviction: "In uncertain times, returning to basics by focusing on customers and products, actively investing, and innovating will create greater opportunities for leaps forward." Vice Chairman Jung has repeatedly emphasized "fanatical focus on customers" in his New Year’s addresses in 2020, 2021, and 2023.

Jung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group, visited the Starbucks The Bukhansan branch in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul on the 8th and shared opinions with the store employees.
[Photo by Shinsegae Group].

"Our mission is to provide solutions to what customers want"

In the afternoon, he visited the Starbucks The Book Bukhansan store in Jingwan-dong, Eunpyeong-gu. This store, which opened last month, is a customer-specialized store that Starbucks is focusing on as the year of its re-leap. Vice Chairman Jung said, "I came to the site today and noticed the straws have changed. We have always found answers from customer inconvenience, and I think we found solutions on-site and applied them well," adding, "business strategies must also be designed by listening to customers’ voices. The answer is always with customers and on-site, so please carefully observe what customers need and set the business direction accordingly." Starbucks has reflected customer feedback on the strength of existing paper straws and has been sequentially applying more durable, stronger paper straws in stores since the 17th of last month.

He said, "Shinsegae Group is not just a company that sells products but is becoming a company that occupies customers’ time and space," and "Starbucks should also continuously innovate to expand the scope of customer experience and create reasons for customers to invest their time and visit us." He continued, "Shinsegae Group is a company that provides solutions to what customers want and desire," emphasizing, "Our mission is to constantly understand customer demands and present new experiences and values that customers can be enthusiastic about."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.